Risk of spontaneous and anthropogenic fires in waste management chain and hazards of secondary fires

Ibrahim, Muhammad Asim

Risk of spontaneous and anthropogenic fires in waste management chain and hazards of secondary fires

2020

Ibrahim, Muhammad Asim

This article aims to analyze the risk of waste-fires in Sweden, using the national data of fire anomalies (13,053 fire hotspots), remotely sensed by the NASA's Visible-Infrared-Imaging-Radiometer-Suite (VIIRS). Risk of fires was studied at 1,837 waste storage sites of eight different categories: (a) waste-collection (520); (b) pre-treatment and sorting sites (194); (c) middle storage of waste (229); (d) recycling of electrical items (71); (e) other recycling activities (83); (f) combustion (348); (g) landfills (271) and (h) wood-related (121). In total, 143 waste-fires at 111 waste management sites, with fire radiative power (FRP) as high as 81 MW, were detected over a period of seven years 2012-18. Data shows that landfills and RCs are two major high-risk groups for instigation of secondary fires. It is concluded that risk of wastefires at all stages of waste management chain can be mitigated by controlling the challenges of structural over-capacities at the sites, functioning up-stream of waste management chain. Moreover, there is need to establish an increased number of property-close RCs to enhance quality of waste sorting. A novel technique for the analysis of risk of wastefires, using remote sensing and GIS modeling, is presented in this article. This technique can be extrapolated for other geographical settings for the assessment of risk of waste-fires.

اظهر المزيد [+]